St. Louis @ Atlanta preview

Last Meeting ( Apr 29, 2010 ) Atlanta 4, St. Louis 10

The Atlanta Braves are trying to fight their way forward in the National League East while fighting off the challengers in the NL wild-card race.

The St. Louis Cardinals are trying to figure out where it all went wrong.

The Braves will be looking to take advantage of the stumbling Cardinals when the teams open up a four-game series on Thursday.

Atlanta held on to first place in the East from May 31 until Tuesday night, when a loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates combined with the Philadelphia Phillies’ win slid the team a half-game back in the division.

The Braves shook that off with a big win on Wednesday night, drubbing the Pirates 9-3 to avoid a sweep. Derrek Lee, Martin Prado and Alex Gonzalez drove in two runs apiece and Derek Lowe managed a rare win with six strong innings in the contest.

The win helped Atlanta on two fronts. In addition to keeping pace with Philadelphia in the division, it bumped the Braves' lead in the wild-card race to two games over the San Francisco Giants, who fell in Arizona.

The Cardinals continued their fall on Wednesday, dropping an 8-1 decision at Milwaukee. The setback dropped St. Louis 6 1/2 games behind the Braves in the wild card race, with two other teams in between.

It has been a long fall for the Cardinals, who were in first place in the NL Central less than a month ago and now trail Cincinnati – losers of four in a row – by six games. They're a playoff longshot due to continued failures against sub-.500 teams and an offense that has scored three runs or fewer in 14 of their last 22 games.

Albert Pujols accounted for St. Louis’ lone run with a solo blast on Wednesday but even he hasn’t been immune to the struggles, batting just .158 (6-for-38) without a multi-hit game in 11 straight games before his two-hit night on Wednesday.

Adam Wainwright looked like the top Cy Young contender a few weeks ago when the Cardinals were flying high. Now he’s just trying to stop his own losing streak. The right-hander has watched his ERA rise from 1.99 on August 11 to 2.34 after dropping four straight starts. He has lasted just five innings in each of his last two outings and was knocked around for five runs – two earned – and seven hits in a loss to the Reds over the weekend.

Wainwright, who was drafted by the Braves in 2000, has never lost to his original franchise, going 5-0 with a 2.00 ERA in eight games (five starts).

Atlanta will counter with Jair Jurrjens, who is coming off one of his best starts of the season. The right-hander held the Florida Marlins to three hits while striking out seven in seven scoreless innings to earn a win on Sunday.

Jurrjens missed nearly two months this season due to a strained left hamstring suffered on April 29 against St. Louis, which knocked him around for three runs in one inning before he departed.